First year students learn the basic technical aspects of painting including the building and priming of canvases, the implementation of different painting techniques and materials, and the development of an understanding of how objects exist in space on a two dimensional surface. First year students also learn about the aesthetic and analytical elements of animation film.

Visits to galleries, artist studios,and museums as well as presentations by visiting artists, provide students with an introduction to issues in contemporary art.

Through discussions with teachers and their peers,students begin to develop a critical position about their work and their relationship to issues in contemporary painting.